The day started early. I set the alarm for 6am but it could have been midnight when it went off. Any hint of daylight from my bedroom window was completely obscured by a Jenga-like wall of cardboard boxes, a scene repeated throughout the house.
Yes, it was moving day, one of those events that, along with divorce and the passing of a much-loved pet, is liable to tip the average person into a nervous breakdown. For me, though, it was business as usual.
You see, I move a lot. This particular move, in January this year, was my fourteenth in the past 28 years. In an era when so many people are instead staying put and doing an attic conversion or kitchen extension, I am happy to buck the trend. A forever home? Not for me. In fact, the very thought of living in one place for more than a couple of years fills me with gloom. I like a fresh start, a project, a chance to take a sow's ear and turn it into a silk purse.
And no, it's not ruinously expensive if you know how to keep your moving costs down. In fact, keeping moving has kept me financially afloat over the years.
So why am I a serial cardboard-box packer? My parents lived in the same house almost all their married life. I am one of five children and the house gradually filled up with stuff as well as people, like sherbet lemons being poured into an old-fashioned sweetie jar until the top would barely go on. My reaction to this was to crave minimalism. So, one reason I like moving is that it's a chance to chuck stuff out.
My first flat, bought with my sister in the late 1980s (with the help of a deposit from my grandmother), was not exactly a sleek space. It was a small Edwardian maisonette and we had so little money that our grandmother kindly gave us some heavy mahogany furniture, which we secretly hated. By flat number four, the minimalist aesthetic had really kicked in. I had a living room so sparse that people thought I'd been burgled. That was pre-children, of course. These days I can't be quite so ascetic. Still, I enjoy throwing things out. My kids have been known to accusingly present me with school art projects I've put in the recycling bin with the paint still wet.
I didn't set out with a master plan of multiple moves. I've just got better at it. After the Edwardian maisonette there was a one-bed flat above a snack bar, a shabby flat in a townhouse, a 1930s art deco flat, a doll's house-sized Victorian terrace, another art deco flat, a leaky former dairy (when it rained the vinyl floor floated), a falling-down semi, a converted garage and various other fixer-uppers. I've owned some, rented others. I've been a landlord and a tenant.
The house I moved into in January is a rented suburban semi. My early moves were all about independence. My sister and I bought that first place because we wanted to be grown-ups, and as a mortgage was then easy to get, we trotted down to the bank and signed on the dotted line.
It hasn't all been plain sailing. We went into negative equity on our first flat and had to take a $20,000 loss. There was also a point when the property market coughed and I had a house I couldn't sell. I just had to wait it out.
In 2009, I was lumbered with a massive mortgage and another house whose value was falling by the day, with buyers making offers then pulling out.
I ended up splitting the house in two for 18 months until the market stabilised.
I put a temporary kitchen in upstairs and my three children, the dog and I lived in what was effectively a two-bedroom flat, while our new downstairs neighbours gave barbecues in what should have been our garden.
It was tough. I'm not moaning. I know I'm lucky. Many of today's young people may never be able to buy their own home. But for me, home ownership was and is a feminist issue. It equates to being in charge of your destiny. If you own your own home, or have an equal share in one with your partner and the relationship goes bad, you can afford to leave. Those mortgage payments are down payments on a potential lifeboat. Cynical? I prefer to think of it as practical.
And indeed, when I have divorced (twice), the emotional devastation has been made a little easier by the knowledge that I wouldn't be penniless on a park bench.
Of course, it has also made another house move inevitable, as assets have had to be split. As divorcees will know, it is slightly dispiriting to feel yourself moving back down the property ladder, post-split, when you've worked hard to go up. But it just redoubles my determination to keep moving.
However, most of my moves have not been forced by relationship splits. They have been my choice. Again, part of it is practical. As a journalist and now nutritionist/hypnotherapist, work is unstable. I don't have a pension, sick pay, maternity leave etc. Buying and selling flats and houses has allowed me to build some equity. If I have a bad year financially, or a big tax bill, I don't panic because I can always move and free up some ready cash.
Moving home gives you freedom. After 30 years of paying huge mortgages, I am now mortgage-free, albeit in a smaller and much less grand house than I once owned (or rather, the bank did). The house I live in now is rented, but I own another that is rented out.
"But isn't moving expensive?" people ask. Stamp duty has become a bigger issue over the years, but you can be canny about other costs.
"But isn't it stressful?" is the next question. Yes and no. The first month is always hell. Two houses ago, I moved to discover not only had the sellers taken all the light fittings (not just the bulbs), but none of the loos flushed.
There was another move where, on completion day, the buyers didn't come up with the money. We lived in a hotel for two days while they sorted out their finances - not as glamorous as it sounds when you've got a new baby, no change of clothes and can't find your deodorant. But, I studied fashion at college and the essence of fashion is newness. For me, moving house satisfies that same desire to embrace the new.
The only real problem is that my kids (aged 16, 13 and nine) mostly don't like moving. They crave familiarity, so we have reached a sort of grumpy compromise. I don't move their schools and I promise to get their Xbox Live working. They put up with it. I treat their bedrooms like a travelling exhibit: I pick them up and put them down in an exact replica of their preferred detritus.
Other people think I'm loopy. Parents at my children's schools exclaim, "You've moved again?", as yet another class address list has to be amended. I also tend to trip some kind of debtor alert when I fill in official forms; my multiple past addresses clearly look suspicious.
Will I ever stop moving? I don't think so. My last one went smoothly and I am already planning the next. I'd be bored if I stayed in one place. Every time I move, I discover a new area. I already have my eye on a nearby street where the houses have lovely front gardens.
My children are divided: one son says he's going to keep moving, like me, when he grows up, while the other announced that he plans to find a home and never, ever move again. Oh well, that might give me a place to stay if I need it between moving houses. •
10 tips for saving money on your move
1. Start decluttering at least six weeks before you move. Be ruthless - if you haven't used it in a year, it should go.
2. Donate furniture to charity. Furniture often looks wrong in a new space and the less you have, the cheaper your moving costs.
3. Sell unwanted items online. Branded clothing is snapped up and is cheap to post, as are console games and DVDs.
4. Set your kids a "one-box" challenge. Give them one box only that they can fill with stuff (excluding clothes). Anything not in the box goes to charity.
5. Buy furniture that folds or comes in parts, such as drop-leaf tables and divan beds.
6. Save your moving boxes - they can be expensive - if you'll be on the move within five years.
7. Avoid shelves that need to be fixed to the wall. Choose free-standing units instead.
8. Have new furniture delivered late on your moving day.
9. Invest in floor and table lamps. Rewiring a house to get the lighting right is expensive.
10. Unpack every box asap. Do not put anything in the attic - you're simply storing up trouble for your next move.
Stella Magazine, The Sunday Telegraph (UK)
0 comments
New User? Sign up